For Floyd Imagination Month (FloCoIMo) I decided that my creative project would be baking and cooking 31 recipes. I chose this because it felt easy in a month that started with me wanting to do absolutely nothing. I would already be cooking and frankly, I knew it would be more realistic than signing up for a month of watercolor or illustrations. I also wanted to challenge myself to try new recipes, get in the kitchen more and eat out less. It's the end of the month and I've only eaten out seven times, which is pretty decent considering a normal month for us would be around 12 times. I also wanted to cut out convenience foods and cook more from scratch.

I can say that I loved every single one of these dishes and the experience of making them. Food is a nice way to track memories and events in a month. I can remember an impromptu dinner with one of Josh's friends. Lazy Sunday mornings with pancakes and jam. Recipes followed from a homemade cookbook given to me at Christmas. The cookies that I learned not to eat all of in one sitting. The nourished feeling I had after eating black lentil soup. Understanding the role of grated and very cold butter in the best biscuits ever. Josh's favorite being the spicy bang bang shrimp and making them four other times. I remember his late-night trip out to get nappa cabbage because they just aren't the same without it.  Reconfirming that apple pie needs sour cream to be amazing. Knowing that chick peas and lettuce can make a decent dinner. And most of all, taking the time to care for myself and my husband. Knowing, each night when I cleared off the table, turned off the TV, and put plates down, that I was creating much more than a new recipe.

Loads and loads of dishes later, I've got one day left in the month and only one recipe left. What should I make?

You can see my first post with photos here.

1. Tandoori Chicken Burgers
2. Sweet potato and black bean enchilada casserole (I used kidney beans)
3. 5 ingredient granola bars
4. Pastor Ryan's Chili (I used this as a base recipe. Added mushrooms and carrots to mine, didn't add crackers)
5. Lemon and Raspberry Jam Pancakes and Lemon Pancakes (I added lemon to the batter and used whipping cream+ water instead of milk)
6. Bang Bang Shrimp Tacos (made recipe, placed in flour tortillas with napa cabbage)
7. Baked Pasta with Ricotta
8. Krissie's Mom's Potato Ravioli (didn't use the peppers or onions, added more potatoes)
9. Blueberry muffins (I used frozen blueberries and didn't cook them down, next time I would use more.)
10. Pork potstickers
11. Krissie's Pork and apple meatballs (I served with egg noodles with sour cream, butter, salt, garlic and parsley)
12. Ginger baked salmon 
13. Loaded Chocolate Chip Cookies
14. Parmesan Crunchy Fries
15. Peanut Butter, Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
16. Red Lentil Soup (I used black lentils)
17. Granola Cookies
18. Feta Dressing
19. The Best Biscuits
20. Sausage Gravy
21. Kung Pao with Vegetables
22. Southern Goulash
23. Brown Butter Mushrooms with Creamy Noodles
24. Rice Krispie Chicken
25. Falafel
26. Creamy Dill Sauce
27. Naan 
28. Candied Oranges 
29. Smashed Potato
30. Mini Sour Cream Apple Pies

I make vegetable kung pao with peanuts at least once a week. Josh loves it, I love it, and it's quick and easy to make. I'm pretty sure I could make it with my eyes closed. I sauté two or three cups of celery and one chopped onion in 1-2 T sesame or olive oil. Cook until tender. I add fresh or powdered garlic, white pepper, a few pepper flakes, and one or two shakes of chinese five spice. Then I add about 2 T soy sauce, 2 T rice vinegar, 2 t sugar or honey, a shake of cornstarch and then 1/2 - 1 C. chicken of vegetable stock. Add more soy sauce or garlic to taste and about a cup of salted peanuts. Top off with chili sauce and serve with basmati rice.

Before dinner I did 40 minutes of Insanity and I swear during the whole thing I had Bob in my head yelling at me to work harder. I think it's because of Gail. And you know what? I worked harder! Thanks Bob (and Gail.)

Today's lunch reminds me of my mom and home.  I used Bobby's Goulash as a base recipe because it's the closest to my mom's goulash.  My version only had one pound of ground beef, I used diced tomatoes and an open jar of spaghetti sauce, I replaced two pounds meat with 3 cups of diced cremini mushrooms, and I used worcestershire sauce instead of soy sauce.  Aside from the mushrooms, which remind her of snails, I think she'd approve!

I ate this meal almost three hours ago and I'm still sufficiently stuffed. It looks like dinner won't be for a few more hours.

Time to get my Insanity on!

This morning's breakfast: whole wheat toast with butter, local eggs (these guys were huge!), and a little fruit salad of cherries and clementines. I'm taking time to eat a filling breakfast in an attempt to eliminate the need for a snack before lunch. If I just eat cereal or something lighter, I'm hungry one or two hours later. Sometimes I'm just not satisfied and I find myself looking for something else to eat regardless of hunger. I'm thinking this will tide me over for at least four hours.

Eating three filling meals a day helps with clearing my mind. I don't have to worry so much about eating when I'm not truly hungry because it's more clear this way. And eating enough to keep me full for hours is so helpful.

I should note that I don't think snacking is a bad thing for most people. In the past, snacking for me, leads to more snacking and eating without hunger. I'm finding that if my meal is filling, I really don't need to eat between them.

Do you eat between meals?

I've been making my way through FloCoIMo with my 31 recipes challenge. So far, I've made 12 recipes. Here are my not so good phone photos of what I've made so far.

Bang Bang Shrimp Tacos

Krissie's Mom's Potato Ravioli

 Pork Potstickers

Lemon Pancakes w/ Strawberry Jam

Pastor Ryan's Chili w/ Guacamole and Chips

Blueberry muffins w/ Streusel Topping

Krissie's Pork and Apple Meatballs w/ Sour Cream and Garlic Noodles

Ginger Baked Salmon w/ Smashed Potatoes and Caramelized Onions and Mushrooms

Recipe Recap With Links:

1. Tandoori Chicken Burgers
2. Sweet potato and black bean enchilada casserole (I used kidney beans)
3. 5 ingredient granola bars
4. Pastor Ryan's Chili (I used this as a base recipe. Added mushrooms and carrots to mine, didn't add crackers)
5. Lemon Pancakes (I added lemon to the batter and used whipping cream+ water instead of milk)
6. Bang Bang Shrimp Tacos (made recipe, placed in flour tortillas with napa cabbage)
7. Baked Pasta (no photo, recipe coming!)
8. Krissie's Mom's Potato Ravioli (didn't use the peppers or onions, added more potatoes)
9. Blueberry muffins (I used frozen blueberries and didn't cook them down, next time I would use more.)
10. Pork potstickers
11. Krissie's Pork and apple meatballs (I served with egg noodles with sour cream, butter, salt, garlic and parsley)
12. Ginger baked salmon and smashed potato (my recipes, coming soon!)

This month I'm participating in FloCoIMo which is Floyd's (and beyond) alternative to NanoWrimo. My idea first was to create an art journal, but after the first day of the year that seemed like too much work for me right now. I imagine I'd sit around the last week of the year hurridly putting something together, just because. And so I went back to my original idea, which someone told me would be too much, but that's me, I'm doing it any way. 31 recipes in January.

So far I've made five and I actually want to do it, I look forward to each recipe. It goes along nicely with my resolution to cook more and I'm trying out new recipes that I've been saving up for way too long.

Yesterday morning for brunch I had another tandoori chicken burger served on naan. Recipes one and two of the month. I just love this recipe.

For dinner I made Black Bean and Sweet Potato Enchilada Casserole. I was scared that I wouldn't like the mushy texture of the sweet potatoes in this, but I did. This recipe was a success, Josh said "I think this is even better than I think it is" as he is now battling the same sickness I had over the weekend. It was very good. Savory, spicy (but not too hot) and comforting.

I made a few minor changes to the recipe, which you can find here. I used kidney beans instead of black because my black beans were not done soaking. I used tomatoes with green chilis in the sweet potato mixture instead of just chilis. I added red onions to the layers. I didn't use cream cheese. I used cheddar cheese instead and on top. I used beef broth instead of chili when making the green chili sauce, only because that's what I had on hand. I served with avocados sprinkled with sea salt. I also made more sweet potatoes than that recipe suggests so I could put it in a bigger pan and make six servings. This will definitely be made again.

My fifth recipe is Five Ingredient Granola. I used pecans, oatmeal, chocolate chips, peanut butter, sea salt, honey+corn syrup.

These were good, but way too sweet, especially post Christmas. Next time I would use dried cranberries, more nuts and all honey.

Good morning! Did you guys get any snow yesterday? So far we just have a dusting, it's mostly cold and windy. Is it bad that I'm hoping for at least one big snow this winter?

Yesterday's breakfast was so good. I had one of Jeanne's eggs fried in butter, a couple of slices of peach ham, a clementine and a small slice of banana bread. I ended up not eating more than a bite of the banana bread because I got overzealous with reheating it in the microwave. I think a loaf of banana bread is in my future.

Lunch was really late in the day so I kept it small. A shared chicken burrito, half of an avocado, and salsa.

Dinner took forever to cook, but it was so worth it. I made tandoori chicken burgers with yogurt cucumber sauce and naan. I topped the burgers with cucumber, red onion and cilantro. It was amazing. The chicken patties were tender and had a lot of Indian spice flavor to them. I also really liked the cumin in the cucumber sauce.

I didn't get a good photo of the burgers because it was 9pm and I didn't feel like pulling out the natural lights, but these were amazing. I'll definitely be making them again. You can find the recipe for the tandoori chicken burgers here. The only difference for me was the chicken. I used whole chicken breasts and ground them up in the food processor with the spices. The naan recipe is here.

I did not exercise yesterday and can tell it's going to be hard at first to get back into the swing of things. I woke up early to exercise and then waited for Josh and then just kept putting it off until we were both too tired. I think honestly we were both excited to get back to work and have a normal day that it took second seat to everything else. No excuses today though.

I'm almost done reading It Chooses You by Miranda July. Oh my. It's so very interested and surprisingly sad and deep. Miranda's comments about life, time and death feel so familiar to what goes on in my own head that it's comforting to read the  words from someone else. While writing or trying to write a screen play she decides to seek out the people from the LA Penny Saver for interviews. What she finds is a whole lot of crazy in a world that exists without the internet.

We've made it to the second day of the new year! Hooray for us!

Yesterday was the first day in awhile that I felt like a human being. This means that I diligently sat at my computer listening to Perpetuum Mobile on repeat while I worked on finishing design projects from 2011. I'm pretty sure that listening to any piece of music on repeat for any length of time is a sign of deep neurosis. I'm going to look into that. Productivity felt so good.

So did eating...

I'm calling this the breakfast of friends because everything here was given to me. I know some good people. The egg from my friend Jeanne's chickens. Fresh bread and clementines from bread master Sarah. And apple butter from my mom. I don't care for runny eggs, I like them fried crisp in butter and well done with lots of pepper.

Christmas tree is still up, I'm thinking I'll take it down next weekend. I just love the light, maybe I need to put twinkle lights up year round. The scrabble peace ornament is from my pal AshleyGee and it's one of my favorites this year. Thanks Ashley!

Dinner was at India Garden in Blacksburg. Their chicken tikka masala is exactly what I was craving. It's so sweet and creamy and perfect with naan. I emailed Josh earlier in the day and said "if I get my work done, we're going out!" and out we did.

I love Indian food, there is no craving like an Indian food craving, I could  eat this meal several times a week.

After dinner we went out to see The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo which was deeply disturbing and intriguing. I honestly loved the story, but there wasn't a lot left on the table as far as torturous scenes go. Rooney Mara was fantastic though. Have you read the books? I'm equal parts scared and interested in reading them.

It's so nice to start the year with a clean slate. I've cleared so much off my plate for the new year that it feels good to have time to write and be creative.  Today I start back with Insanity after being off for two weeks. I'm looking forward to the endorphins and sweat.

What is the best meal or best food that you have eaten all year? Did you make it? Did you get it at a restaurant? Do your best to describe the food and the experience with us.

How will you resound?

This one is really hard. I had so many good meals while traveling this year. From jerk chicken in the caribbean, to lamb burgers with tzatziki sauce here in Floyd or fire cheese in DC with the ladies. I ate really well this year.

My favorite home cooked meal is this:

Cashew chicken! This year I mastered Chinese food. The closest Chinese takeout place in 35 minutes away and one of Josh's favorite meals happens to be Kung Pao, so I set out to make my own at home. I make some sort of Chinese dish every week and I'm always surprised at how close I get to the real thing. Not only is it very close, it's a lot better. So much so, that I don't even like going out for Chinese food anymore because I'm always disappointed. Not to mention, it's so much better for us. I use less oil and lots of fresh vegetables.

The day started with an Insanity workout, which was insane. I skipped Thursday's workout meaning that I will have to exercise tomorrow, my usual day off , to make up for it. I've learned that morning exercise is the way to go for me, especially in the winter and Thursday just didn't happen.

I drank tons of water and made a mental note to carry my water bottle with me where ever I went today.

I made a fruit smoothie for breakfast. Granola was an amazing addition.

And then I got dressed for the day and realized something that I need to share: I will wear anything. Even if I probably shouldn't. I'm  sure there is some rule book out there for big girls in their late 20's. You know the one about not wearing puffy vests, and bright colors? I laugh in the face of fashion rules! This is why I should never give fashion advice. I will try my darnedest to "make it work". For real. Too old? no! too fat? no! too bright? no! Bring it! This is also why you should never take me clothing shopping with you. I will encourage you to buy anything that makes your heart pitter patter, even if fashion says otherwise. I will encourage and celebrate headbands on grown women, false eye lashes for the office and sparkly shoes that were trendy seven years ago. You've been warned.

Lunch was a big giant salad that I'm calling "fall salad", because of the cranberries, of course. It was filled with other yummy things like goat cheese, pecans and ginger dressing. And then I hemmed and hawed over having baked spaghetti. Would the salad be enough? Do I really need the spaghetti? Will the salad keep me full? So I did was any rational person would do and ate the spaghetti. The cream cheese baked spaghetti that my bff Jasmine told me that I needed to "omg make right now!" because it was on pinterest and it's delicious. So I made it with whole wheat noodles and vodka sauce and I'll be darned if that didn't come out to 530 calories per serving. That's what happens when you put a whole block of cream cheese into your spaghetti. You won't regret it. Luckily, I portioned everything out into single serving freezer cups to prevent it from tempting me too much.

For a mid-afternood treat I drank a mug of Tazo passion tea, unsweetened.

For dinner I made the most popular Fenn household dish. Are you ready? Vegetable and peanut stir fry! Not kidding, it's the very best thing that I make. We both love it, it's easy, it's quick, it's healthy, it's bulky, it's vegetables, it's cheap, it's everything I could hope for.

It's so easy and fail proof, just vegetables, garlic, sesame oil, red pepper flakes, soy sauce, peanuts, rice vinegar, water and honey.

I had another tea right after dinner. This time it was caramel black tea with a little milk and sugar.

And then I succumbed to an after-after dinner treat while re-watching Mad Men. I really went back and forth on this. I rationalized heating a little cookie dough in the microwave. I really truly did. It wasn't much, and I ate it slowly. Did I need it? no. Did it derail my day? no. Did I end up eating more? no. So I'm okay with that. I did have a real moment with myself when I wanted more, because I will always want more in that, more wouldn't taste any different and would make me sick. I've been there. I just wanted a little. But, I've been here before with "just a taste" which has turned into a weeks worth of calories. I'm realizing that eating more of anything when I'm full is never fulfilling, I just need to keep reminding myself of that every day.

Stuff I liked about today: I had a plan with food, exercise and even my work. I got a lot done today and I feel good for that. I also feel good that I drank lots of water and had servings of fruit and vegetables at each meal. I net about 1,600 calories.